SEVEN DREAMING
If there's anything Josette misses about being human, it's dreaming. She doesn't sleep anymore, which means no dreams. That's the only thing she really misses. Well, and Alice, but she has Alice now. In a way. When Jo became a vampire, the first thing she fell in love with was freedom. She had spent the last half-decade of her human life pent up in an asylum, so being able to roam the world at will was exhilarating. Even now, she loved to explore. She got home from school, leaving Margot to do her school work where her other sisters were roaming around the house, but she took the opportunity to head out into their backyard -- which was pretty much just the entire forest. Her aged converse got even dirtier as she trudged through autumn leaves covering muddy earth beneath. The air was cold, but it wasn't like she felt it. Goosebumps no longer rose on her skin nor did her nose redden and run. She was as frozen as the earth around her. She drew in a deep, useless breath, feeling nothing in and nothing out. Frozen in time or just a corpse, Jo didn't have an answer. A hand braced on icy bark as she walked down a hill and into the trees. There was no destination in mind, she just liked the idea of being completely cut off from the world around her. As the trees closed behind her, she felt safe.
Sometimes, when she wanted to feel human again, she would lay down and close her eyes as if she were going to sleep. Her powers would warm her as if she were trying to set her own insides alight. That was when she would dream. Her mind would sort through the memories of the last eighty or so years, picking out things she loved, bringing a warmth to her heart she didn't have to manufacture with flame.
Time didn't feel like it was passing at all, just as still as her, but eventually, the trees opened up in a small clearing. It was a meadow, seemingly untouched by the cold. Breeze sifted through the overgrown grass and flowers as the flora brushed her jean-clad calves. Josette settled, standing in the middle as her eyes surveyed the area around her. Through the trees, she sees a doe walking alongside her fawn, unbothered by Jo's presence. Either that or they simply haven't noticed her. She stays still as they pass, content to let them go about their day. After all, she is invading their home, who is she to interrupt them?
Once they pass, she moves to lay down in the tall grass, letting it tickle her ears and exposed forearms, a soft smile on her face as her back meets the earth. Looking up at the sun against a white sky, she closes her eyes. Sunlight seeps through her eyelids as Josette let her own hand cup her cheek, warmth seeping from her fingertips.
"Do you think we'll ever get out of her?" Mary asks one day. "I don't think they're ever going to let me go. They'd let you go, though."
"Why do you say that?" Josette's tone is curious as she absentmindedly picks at the torn skin from where she bites her fingertips.
Mary shrugs, her expression solemn as their eyes meet, "You can just pretend, can you not? Settle down, marry a nice man, have kids. No one needs to know. I can't exactly hide prophetic visions, can I?"
"You say that like that's a future I want," her voice is more bitter than she intended it to be, but the words hang in the air now; heavy between them. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life as a liar, Mary, how do you think I ended up here in the first place? I'd rather rot here than in some loveless marriage with a man who deserves better than a wife who cannot love him."
The other girl stayed silent for this as if she regretted being the cause of the frustration in Josette's tone; Josette just regretted taking that tone in the first place. After a moment, Mary looks up at her, "I don't think I'll ever meet anyone as brave as you, Jo."
Jo scoffs at this, shaking her head as a small smile forms on her face despite her best wishes to remain tense, "I just wonder if it's brave or stupid. The longer I stay here, I'm starting to think I'm just a stubborn fool."
"Well then you're the best stubborn fool I've ever met," Mary laughs. Josette doesn't think she'll ever meet another person with a laugh as musical and joyous as Mary's. She could listen to it all day, but mostly she just wanted to be one responsible for that laugh.
"I love you, Mary." They are words they have whispered before in the darkness where no one could see or hear them. Those words are not meant to be said between the two of them, but clearly, they have never been strangers to quiet rebellion in their lives. Jo thinks she'll hold onto Mary forever, even if they get out of here and go separate ways, Mary will always be engraved in her mind and her laugh will always be Jo's favorite song.
"I love you, too."
Jo opens her eyes. She isn't alone.
"I saw you," Alice speaks first, "in a vision. I wanted to make sure you didn't stray too far into these woods, there are places we cannot go in this town."
"So that's what I smelled," Josette nods as she sits up, letting her hands brace themselves on the dirt beneath her, "wet dog?"
Alice laughs, "Trust me, it gets worse the closer you get, but we're just glad they haven't kicked us out. Your clan leader may want to get into contact with Billy Black just so they know there's another clan here. What was her name again? Henri?"
"Henrietta," Josette nodded, letting the girl get closer to her. "You came all this way to make sure I didn't stray into wolf territory?"
"Well, and I wanted to see you." It seems Jo had forgotten how shameless Alice was. "It's a bit weird at school when I have to pretend I have no idea who you are when in reality, I know..."
"You know who I was when I was human," the dark-skinned girl cuts her off with a curt nod, "A lot's changed in the last eighty years. I've changed."
Surprisingly, Alice isn't put off by this as she sits down next to the girl, "You hold yourself differently, I've noticed. You've always held your head high, but something about it is... different now. You're protective of that young one."
"Margot," Josette explains, "She's only been with us the last twenty years, this is her first time being surrounded by humans all day since we kept her out of schools to make it look less suspicious. Henrietta was deadset on sending her back, though, she never got to finish high school."
Alice nods at this and Josette almost hates how calm she is. Still, Alice has always been this way. "That's how I feel about Jasper. He's older than that, but he was with another clan before us, one that did not frown upon feasting on humans. So, he's a little wary around them still. I'm sure having more non-violent vampires around will help. At least, I hope it will. You guys do plan to stay, right?"
"At least until Margot graduates, yeah," Josette answers, "But eventually people will realize that Henrietta looks ten years younger than she's supposed to be and we'll have to move. A lifetime of running never gets easier, does it?"
The girl shakes her head, "No, but I suppose if you love the people you're running with, it's better than nothing."
"Do you think we ever would have run away with each other?" Josette asks the question before she can stop herself, regretting it the moment the words leave her mouth. She avoids the girl's eyes, opting to stare into the open mouth of trees she had emerged from. She contemplated running, but instead added, "If we hadn't... died."
"I think so," she answers, her voice saccharine, "I couldn't see myself living with anyone else by my side."
Josette forced herself to meet Alice's eyes, a bittersweet expression on her face as she remarked, "Oh, how things have changed."
"Change can be good," Alice says with a shrug, "When you're frozen in time, I guess you start to appreciate when things start to get interesting, wouldn't you agree? I think finding you was pretty interesting."
The girl just laughs at this although it lacks humor as she says, "I'm not sure if interesting is the right word for it." Tantalizing, maybe, breathtaking. Before she can say anything else, she stands, "I should get back to my sisters."
"It was good to talk to you," Alice is understanding; she'd always been too understanding for her own good. Always seeing the best in people as if she couldn't see the horrible decisions they would make. "I missed you, Jo, but I look forward to getting to know who you've become."
Before she could say anything else, Alice leaves first. Darting through the trees, leaving the grass still shifting in her wake. Josette doesn't know what to think, but her mind is being consumed by confronting her past and she isn't sure how much more of it she can take. Without another thought of Alice, rather more thoughts of the Mary she knew, she goes home.